Teaching the World by Christian

English language proficiency is one of the requirements that non-English speakers should possess if they want to live in an English speaking country. I found this article about immigrants and the language they use when they reach the United States or other English-speaking countries. Check this out:

Non-native speakers exposed to English before moving to America are more likely to use the language in their daily lives in the United States, according to a report led by Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Such early exposure – through newspapers, books, TV and classes as well as traveling – may help determine an immigrant’s socioeconomic mobility, as English proficiency is strongly tied to cultural and social assimilation. The report, featured in the journal Social Science Research, is one of the first to examine English proficiency among immigrants before moving to the United States.

Massey and his collaborators – Ilana Redstone Akresh from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Reanne Frank from The Ohio State University – used data collected by the New Immigrant Survey, a nationally representative sample of non-native speakers who were granted legal permanent residency in the United States between May and November 2003. Before immigrants can apply for U.S. citizenships, they must be permanent U.S. residents for at least five years. Via psypost.org

Some of my former students have asked me about the best reason to learn the English language. I taught them a lot of things especially on the importance of making English as their second language, them being non-English speakers. This article reminded me of those students, and I thought it would be awesome to have this here.

Learning English Can studying in a second language be an advantage?

The most recent episode of the Freakonomics podcast was about language learning, and featured an interview with Chicago psychology Professor, Boaz Keysar. He recently published a paper with some surprising results.

This is only one study, and it would not be wise to read too much into it. However, if this effect is real, it would suggest that using a second language for study provides more than just challenge. There could well be upsides to studying in a language that is not your first.

Related to this was a recent story in the Independent, that speakers of English as an Additional Language in the UK outperformed those with English as a first language in some exams. Again, it would not be sensible to draw any conclusions from this- there are far more factors at play than just the students’ first language. blogs.nottingham.edu.my

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